from Nikita’s lips instead of words.
The creature, nestled imposingly on top of him, descended as if from the ceiling. It was heavy, clawed, and seemingly winged. Something like wings fluttered precisely behind its back.
Something crumbled on Nikita’s cheek. It tasted like ash! Where would ashes come from in a room with no candles, no matches and no lighters? It’s not like an old palace with a fireplace and something was burnt recently. The ashes must have fallen from an unknown creature.
The computer screen, long ago switched to economy mode, suddenly lit up, as if someone had moved the mouse. In the glare from the glowing screen, Nikita saw a hunchbacked or winged creature pressed against the sofa.
It was a demon with wings, burnt and crumbling with ash. At least, that’s how demons are depicted in scary trial paintings and horror movies. Several more of the same creatures wandered around the room. Somehow there was enough room for them. Two of the demons sat on top of the closet, clawing at the teddy bear that had been left as a memento of their childhood. The other demons were tearing off the wallpaper with their claws, as if they were looking for something underneath it. They did not speak, only hissed. One demon’s claws scratched at a keyboard. It looked as if it and its companions had emerged from inside the computer.
How was it that the demons came after the angel? Nikita had been waiting for Athenais, and here they were.
“Young, handsome, not burnt…” the demon’s voice suddenly hissed above him.
Could the creature really be talking?
It ran its claws across Nikita’s chest, leaving holes in his pajamas.
“I was like you, and then I met her,” the demon whispered, leaning very low over Nikita.
Hell was breaking loose in the demon’s eyes. His eyes were red as coal in a furnace and creepy, but there was a modicum of intelligence in them. Somehow that was what made the demon so frightening. If he were just a monster, dumb as an animal, he wouldn’t be so scary. The very fact that an ancient mind was trapped in a mutilated, burnt body was frightening.
The demon’s claws gripped Nikita’s throat again, but for some reason they couldn’t strangle him, only briefly rendering him unconscious.
Nikita woke up quickly, but the words, hoarse from the ashes, were still ringing in his ears.
“I believed in angels. I fought the devil, but the devil became a movie star, and I loved him.”
How strange that sounds! Nikita looked around. There was no one in the room again. The uninterrupted power unit was beeping alarmingly, which meant that the power had been cut again. He should get up and turn off the computer, but he had no strength.
Nikita felt as if he had been put through a meat grinder. There are scratches on his body, scratches on the walls and closet, too. Overall, the room looked normal without the nocturnal guests, but the scraps of gutted bear crumbled from the closet. And why would anyone want to destroy Winnie the Pooh. That, he thought, was the name of the toy when he was a kid.
The room was full of stacks of discs in plastic cases and old-fashioned videotapes. No one had touched them, and for nothing. He had nowhere to put the tapes, but it was a shame to throw them away, too. They had interesting covers on them. Even though the video player had been out of order for a long time, he kept the tapes at home as souvenirs. They are the memory of a bygone era.
His parents had gramophone-type records and players, Nikita accumulated video cassettes as a child, DVDs came to replace them, and they will probably be replaced by something in the future. What else is needed, though, if there’s the Internet. It’s easier to find everything on the Internet than on store shelves. You don’t have to buy cassettes or disks, you just have to click the keys and you’re done.
Nikita downloaded Athenais photos. He is lucky that his girlfriend is an actress. Otherwise her beautiful photos might have disappeared with the deleted account. Any Internet user can delete his account at any time, along with all his photos, but photos of the actress will stay online forever.
“They can change and burn like her servants?” Someone whispered in Nikita’s ear. There was no one behind him, but there was the sensation of a sharp claw pulling his hair away from his ear.
He probably had wax plugs in his ears. They’re the only reason whispers and whistles can be heard. We’ll have to go to the doctor.
For a moment, Nikita thought the downloaded pictures were blackening as if they were burnt.
“What if she’s already burnt and blackened like us? Then would you admire her so much?”
“Yes, I would!” Nikita replied, like a lunatic, to the emptiness.
“And if you find out that the contemplation of fallen angels makes people blind?”
Someone laughed deafeningly above his ear. And that was it! There was no more whistling or noise in my ears. So he didn’t have to go to the doctor. But that didn’t save him from the demons.
Ominous hobby
Demons live in the computer? Or they live in his head?
Nikita examined the scratches on the closet and the wallpaper as carefully as if that would make them disappear. It looked like we’d have to make repairs. The plaster was beginning to chip away, the telephone wires appeared to be chewed up.
Someone had spilled flour in the kitchen. Cracks appeared in his mother’s china that hadn’t been there before. A distillery pot, a thermos, and a set of silver spoons had disappeared. Mom will be very angry about the missing turkey. The arabesque-engraved turkey was a gift from someone important.
The salt-cellar and sugar bowl were cracked, the crystal irons were shattered, and the pots and pans were shattered, as if a giant had stepped on them.
Could it be that the devil had arranged a coven in the kitchen?
Nikita had to take up a broom and dustpan. Only after half an hour of cleaning the kitchen began to become more or less clean.
You can’t let any more bad things into the apartment, or the place will turn into a garbage dump!
Can’t he let anything else in? The demons didn’t ask permission before entering.
“Throw away the computer, then there’s no place for them to come in,” the thought suggested. “Until you got into a chat room with an angel, there were no demons in your life, either. Where there are angels, there are demons. It’s a law of being.”
Throwing the computer away was a reasonable clue, but Nikita wouldn’t dare do such a thing. After all, getting rid of the computer meant getting rid of contact with Athenais. You could only chat with her, after all.
Nikita hid the broom and dustpan, ignored the need to write essays, and returned to his favorite pastime – watching horror movies. He had enjoyed it as a child, then he became weaned on horror, and now Athenais brought him back to his usual hobby.
How had she succeeded? Nikita naively assumed that he had grown up and would never go back to it again.
“Girls do what they want
